This Is a Competition

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If you've watched any competitive reality shows, you've undoubtedly heard one or more contestants utter this line at least once. Maybe they've watched too many reality shows themselves, or maybe they were fed this line by the show's crew members... Either way, reality contestants always feel the need to remind their fellow contestants or the viewer (via the Confession Cam) that they are in a competition and they will do whatever it takes to win.

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Interestingly, this line also shows up in shows where the contestants have absolutely no say in who gets eliminated that week and have to rely on their own personal performance to stay in the game. Those same contestants usually don't make any sort of attempt to sabotage the other players' efforts either.

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Examples

My Little Eye: Rex's state of mind throughout the film. It's clear that he really wants to win the one million dollars.

Starter for 10: The attitude of Patrick, who takes it all very very seriously:

"Excuse me! This man has been sent from the offices of UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE!''

Live Action TV

In The Amazing Race, using "This is a race," is usually not an indication the team is going to lose, and (especially later the series) is generally used to show the team is actually running the race and not holding Honor Before Reason. Also quite possibly the most quoted non-Phil line in the series.

You can actually see the how this attitude changes in the US version, where early on teams who held a competitive attitude over a friendly one were seen as unlikable or villainous by the other teams, and alliances were seen as a necessity by a lot of the teams. The shifting towards a more general competitive attitude was a major plot-line in Season 10, where the teams who valued friendship over the competition were portrayed as inept, while the most competitive team, Dustin & Kandice, were seen by the other teams and portrayed by the editing as the villains, but were wildly popular and are still seen as one of the best teams to ever run the race.

The more competitive teams in My Kitchen Rules makes this statement whenever they perceive the other teams getting too comfortable with each other. Among the 6th season's first group, there was Ash and Camilla, the self-professed food snobs who found that the menu Robert and Lynzey was serving in their Instant Restaurant was too simple/homely, and said that they should really get out of their comfort zone and make something more refined, because "this is a competition, not having friends over for dinner".

Survivor: "This Is A Game" got used so many times during All-Stars it practically became the season's Arc Words.

There's at least one competitor like this in almost every season of Hell's Kitchen. They have a tendency to last pretty long in the competition, too, probably because the producers are able to capitalize on the drama they create.

Video Games

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel has a rare positive example. Your characters are all members of Class VII, a special group of students within the Thors Military Academy who are special experiment by being a blended group of nobles and commoners, the two groups having a long-simmering conflict that is on the verge of reaching boiling point. Part of their curriculum involves field studies in which the students explore separate locations in the greater world of Erebonia, split into two groups: Group A and Group B. From the beginning, Jusis Albarea (son of a high-ranking Duke) and Machias Regnitz (son of a commoner governor) are at each other's throats and during their first field study constantly dog Group B with their bickering. When the two are placed in Group A for the second field study, it looks like it's going to be more of the same. Then, on the train to the destination, Rean Schwarzer cuts through their sniping at each other, pointing out that in the previous field study, their group got an E, which is a low failing grade on a paper exam. He then points out that the structure of their field studies is such that it places them directly in competition with Group B and asks if they like idea of losing again. Both express surprise at the idea of him being a competitive type, but admit that he has a point and concede to at least trying to work together and seeing the other's point of view. Of course, it's not all smooth sailing, but by the end of the field study, Jusis actually joins the group in rescuing Machias, who has been illegally jailed by his father, and the two form their first successful combat link.

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